"American Idol" (Fox, Weds-Thurs) – The extremely unpleasant reality of life in "American Idol"-land was underscored this past week with a story, first appearing in the Hollywood Reporter, that the show considered dumping judge Mariah Carey mid-season and replacing her with Jennifer Lopez.

"American Idol" showrunners quickly denied the report as a rumor that somehow generated from talks to bring J-Lo back to perform on the finale, but just the fact that the press took the idea seriously shows how far "AI" has fallen. Even during Paula Abdul's craziest and most unintelligible days, when there was often off-season debate about whether to bring her back, no one ever talked about replacing her mid-season.

The reasons for the decline are partly its age, partly the judges and partly the show continually shooting itself in the foot, as happened last Thursday when no one was eliminated from the show. The reason? The producers, not wanting to send two singers home in one night, built in an extra week of the finals so that the judges could use their save and still only have one person leave the next week. Of course, the judges didn't use the save, leaving the show with one more week than it had finalists.

Someone has to go this week – we hope.

"Dancing with the Stars" (ABC, tonight and Monday) – As we went to press before Latin Week, we don't know how Monday's dancers fared, but we're willing to bet the usual suspects will be the ones on the chopping block. The "immunity" for the top couple and the pick-your-opponent dance-off round means that the stronger-performing dancers will have even more of an edge than usual. Or if you want to look at that more negatively, it means the audience votes will count for less than usual.

"The Voice" (NBC, tonight and Monday) – We didn't get to check out the start of the knockout rounds yet, either, but we are certain that they were an improvement over the screechy battle rounds. Now, how do we get the producers to dump the battle rounds altogether and get to the live episodes more quickly?

"Hell's Kitchen" (Fox, tonight) – Gordon Ramsay is down to 13 chefs to yell at. It's still too early to have any concrete opinions about the season.

"Survivor: Caramoan – Fans vs. Favorites" (CBS, Wednesday) – There are just three episodes left this season: Wednesday, May 8 in the usual time slot and the three-hour finale extravaganza on Sunday May 12. Despite the late hour the outcome seems even more up in the air than usual. This is because the sub-alliances of the dominant Favorites alliance are either being well-hidden by the editors or they are extremely fluid. Brenda and Andrea seemed tight at one point, but Brenda was ready to sell her out two episodes ago. Cochran has a historical alliance with Dawn, but now Brenda seems like Dawn's closest friend. With Phillip gone, Sherri looks like a complete free agent. And are Reynold and Eddie, the remnants of the minority alliance, doomed, or can they put themselves back in play?

"Project Runway" (Lifetime, Thursday) – Score one rare correct prediction for me! I picked Michelle Lesniak Frankin as the winner before last week's finale, and she did indeed win, thanks – it seemed – to the usually dominant voice of Nina Garcia. Of course, as we know of reality world, a show's "finale" doesn't always mean the end of the season. That will occur Thursday, with the 90-minute reunion episode.

"Fashion Star" (NBC, Friday) – Only two episodes left in the season, and the real suspense is whether the show's ratings will hit zero before the end.

"The Amazing Race" (CBS, Sunday) – It's the two-hour finale, which pits two all-female teams, a couple and a set of brothers. After going 16 seasons without an all-female team winning, the show logged back-to-back women champions in seasons 17 and 18. Will we get our third set in season 22? That seems unlikely. Neither Caroline & Jennifer nor Mona & Beth have won a leg so far, while Max & Katie and Bates & Anthony have won six between them, including the last four.

"Celebrity Apprentice" (NBC, Sunday) – Is there any excuse left to watch now that Gary Busey has been fired?

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